The Illinois General Assembly’s deadline to pass bills out of their chamber of origin is Friday, April 15. Therefore, we anticipate a great deal of activity in the next few days. There is no time to wait! Calls need to go in to state legislators’ offices starting on Monday.

HB 786 Ultrasound Mandate

HB 786 would require that, prior to an abortion, providers must offer an ultrasound, ask the woman if she wants to view it, have the woman sign a form indicating what she chooses, wait one hour before the abortion, and then report the ultrasound data to the Illinois Department of Public Health. This legislation imposes the government on the doctor-patient relationship. No other medical procedure that involves ultrasound has a similar legal requirement. This legislation is not supported by medical or health care organizations. It is supported by anti-choice groups that want to make abortion more complicated and cumbersome to obtain.

HB 3156 would require any facility that performs 50 or more abortions to become a fully licensed Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center (ASTC) which is like a mini-hospital. In Illinois, abortions have been safely performed for over 20 years under a regulatory structure established by the Illinois Department of Public Health. This new requirement would single out abortion for special heightened regulation while allowing many other surgery like liposuction, vasectomies, and oral surgery to be performed in physician offices or clinics rather than ASTC’s. HB 3156 would end up costing Planned Parenthood over $1 million to upgrade our facilities to become ASTC’s. HB 3156 is not supported by medical organizations. Rather, it is being promoted by anti-choice groups who want to make providing abortion care so expensive that it will become unavailable to most women.

SB 1619 would raise the standards for sex education in Illinois. It requires sex ed to be medically accurate, age appropriate, and comprehensive (both abstinence and prevention). We need quality sex education in Illinois schools so that youth have the information they need to stay safe and healthy. SB 1619 is not an unfunded mandate. Schools have the choice whether or not to teach sex ed. If they decide to teach sex ed, they will have a choice among numerous curricula. Parents can review curricula and remove their children from a class if they don’t want them to participate.